my solution to this question is to buy a rodent or a rabbit for a pet. Chinchillas live into their mid-20s so far out-live dogs. Many rabbits can be housebroken and make fine additions to the family. I prefer smaller pets myself and find they cost hundreds of times less to feed then a cat (several years back, one cat = $22.00/mo, a mouse = $0.05/mo)

my solution to this question is to buy a rodent or a rabbit for a pet. Chinchillas live into their mid-20s so far out-live dogs. Many rabbits can be housebroken and make fine additions to the family. I prefer smaller pets myself and find they cost hundreds of times less to feed then a cat (several years back, one cat = $22.00/mo, a mouse = $0.05/mo)

Think I will stick with a dog Ann. Rabbits & Chinchillas can't retrieve ducks worth a damn & they don't bark when strangers are at the door.

_________________I use red, not because of anger but to define my posts to catch rebuttals latter and it makes the quote feature redundent for me. The rest of you pick your own color.

I studied animal nutrition as part of a course as college I did, and as part of a project we were required to write a detailed report comparing two animal diets and their digestive systems (I chose dogs and cows). :) I'm not a vet though, so always make sure to research everything yourself.

Dogs can indeed live on a vegan diet, as they can produce the proteins they need. However, it's not the best option for them. Good quality food with no grain is the best way to go, either by feeding high-quality dog food such as Orijen, or feeding a raw diet. Diets like the Prey Model are my personal favourite, though anyone wanting to try this PLEASE do the research as to make sure your dog's getting a good balance of food. It's basically whole carcasses, fresh bones with a lot of muscle meat, and the right balance of a mix of organs. Some grated veggies and whole eggs are good too. It's high-energy so your dog eats less, has more energy but is calmer, and doesn't smell doggy all the time!

I'm not keen on feeding dogs a vegan diet because it seems a bit wrong to me to deprive an animal of what it's 'supposed' to eat and forcing a completely different diet on it. Some dogs will happily eat a vegan diet, sure, but some dogs will also happily eat poop and tennis balls.

I studied animal nutrition as part of a course as college I did, and as part of a project we were required to write a detailed report comparing two animal diets and their digestive systems (I chose dogs and cows). :) I'm not a vet though, so always make sure to research everything yourself.

Dogs can indeed live on a vegan diet, as they can produce the proteins they need. However, it's not the best option for them. Good quality food with no grain is the best way to go, either by feeding high-quality dog food such as Orijen, or feeding a raw diet. Diets like the Prey Model are my personal favourite, though anyone wanting to try this PLEASE do the research as to make sure your dog's getting a good balance of food. It's basically whole carcasses, fresh bones with a lot of muscle meat, and the right balance of a mix of organs. Some grated veggies and whole eggs are good too. It's high-energy so your dog eats less, has more energy but is calmer, and doesn't smell doggy all the time!

I'm not keen on feeding dogs a vegan diet because it seems a bit wrong to me to deprive an animal of what it's 'supposed' to eat and forcing a completely different diet on it. Some dogs will happily eat a vegan diet, sure, but some dogs will also happily eat poop and tennis balls.

I disagree with people that force their dog (or their child) to became vegetarian. Dogs and humans are omnivores, so in general they need also some meat to be in good health.

I know there are some cases of people that need a vegetarian or vegan diet to be in good health, like for example to avoid body inflammations or to fight against cancer.But this is an individual problem. A general problem is nowadays the quality of the meat on the market, usually contaminated with poisons. A solution can be the biological agriculture, guaranteeing welfare to the animals in farms.

In my opinion humans should personalize their diet, depending on their individual health problems, or if they feel good in eating meat they should eat it.Because we are animals too. Our natural instinct is to survive in this world. It is the nature law.

Personally when I was eating meat I was suffering from lots of inflammations, acne rosacea, tendinitis, degenerative arthritis, falling hair, insomnia, air and food allergies, iron deficit etc.Almost 4 months ago I became vegetarian. My acne rosacea improved a lot, almost disappeared.Now I try to avoid milk product too, and I think I feel better.I only eat egg yolk ( I am allergic to the albumen), some fruits and vegetables, cereals.I introduced some fish in the diet and I feel better: the fish contains vitamin D, and omega 3, to fight against inflammations.

I think it's cruel force a dog to be vegetarian. He could have some problems.

I suggest to the people doing this to read more books about diet and wellness for dogs.This is a problem of being informed.